Texas, six other states call for immediate halt to Dreamer program

A coalition of seven states led by Texas called on a federal court Wednesday to immediately halt an Obama-era program that grants work permits to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

The legal maneuver comes after the states filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which also shieldsparticipants from imminent deportation. In a motion for a preliminary injunction, the states argue the 2012 program leads to additional costs in health care, law enforcement and education among the plaintiff states, as well as increased competition for jobs.

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The plaintiffs, which also include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia, argue the DACA program “flouts” laws enacted by Congress and “would reshape the separation of powers” within the federal government if allowed to continue unimpeded.

The lawsuit creates even more uncertainty for the roughly 694,000 “Dreamers” enrolled in the DACA program, as well as the businesses that employ them. Texas and a coalition of states first publicly threatened to sue the administration over the DACA program in June, prompting President Donald Trump to halt new enrollment and move to phase out the program altogether.

Courts have subsequently ordered the administration to resume renewing DACA permits, but it remains unclear how much longer participants will have protections or whether the program will reopen to new applicants in the future.

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While Texas and the other plaintiffs suing the government contend that the court could immediately cancel all DACA permits, they said they would be amenable to blocking the administration from renewing enrollment or issuing new permits in the future, which would effectively phase out the program over a two-year period.

The plaintiffs said in the Tuesday court filing that the states will suffer “significant irreparable injury” if the DACA program is allowed to continue.

The administration, on the other hand, can’t argue it will endure any injury from shuttering DACA since it already attempted to end the program, the states contend.

The states’ suit was filed in a federal court in Brownsville — the same venue where Texas successfully blocked a broader 2014 deportation-relief program for certain parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

The coalition of states, helmed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, argues the defeat of the 2014 program bolsters the case that DACA can’t pass constitutional muster.

Paxton on Tuesday blasted the federal judges who blocked the Trump administration from ending DACA, calling it “a travesty of justice.”